Cricket has never been a popular sport in Aranui, until now!
In 2007, Aranui Primary in Christchurch entered students in the MILO Trophy competition for Year five & six. Since then cricket has become a huge hit with the students, where they now run their own games during lunchtime, enter in the MILO Trophy each year and request to play non-stop cricket for PE.
To celebrate their love of cricket a group of students got together this week to participate in a game of Kilikiti (Samoan cricket) against St James School. Aranui teacher Tracy O’Neill said she was very proud of her students. “Many of our students have very good hand-eye co-ordination and are naturally talented athletes. Today we celebrated these skills along with the cultural diversity of our school by hosting a game of kilikiti,” she said. “A group of Year 6-8 students showed off their batting and bowling skills using traditional kilikiti equipment in spectacular fashion.”
Not only is it about participation when it comes to cricket and sport, it’s also about attitude and O’Neill said her students showed real sportsmanship. “We were proud of the positive sporting attitude shown by the students and the enthusiasm of our supporters. We look forward to many more events like these in the future,” she said.
The school also wanted to say a big thank you to Dr Fobby's Samoan Cuisine for providing the players and staff with Vaifala and Panikeke – the perfect cuisine to go with kilikiti.
